Scouts Canada releasing review of sex-abuse related firings

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Scouts Canada is releasing the findings of a forensic review today of its suspension and termination records over the past 60 years, following CBC’s fifth estate investigation into how the organization dealt with past cases of sexual abuse.

CBC News is scheduled to cover the release live online and on CBC News Network at 11 a.m ET.

"When the organization's child and youth protection policies and practices were recently challenged, Scouts Canada took an honest, open and transparent approach that confronted both the good and the bad of its history," the organization said in a release Friday.

"The KPMG review of suspension and termination files is a thorough, arm's-length review of all records held by Scouts Canada related to the suspension and/or termination of volunteer leaders for sexual misconduct with youth covering 64 years, from 1947 to 2011."

Scouts Canada said it will also unveil an updated policy on child and youth safety.

In February, Scouts Canada's chief commissioner, Steve Kent, acknowledged that his organization did not report all allegations of sexual abuse to police in past decades, contrary to previous denials. (Canadian Press)

In 2011, the fifth estate, in a co-investigation with the Los Angeles Times, looked at Scouts Canada's controversial system for recording the names of pedophiles who had infiltrated its ranks and had been removed from the organization. It was known as the "confidential list." The investigation followed a public legal battle involving the Boy Scouts of America, which paid out millions in legal settlements.

CBC first reported in October 2011 that Scouts Canada signed out-of-court confidentiality agreements with more than a dozen child sex-abuse victims in recent years.

Two months later, Scouts Canada issued a blanket apology to former scouts who were sexually abused by leaders.

It also said at the time that Scouts Canada had 350 confidential files that it handed over, not to police, but to the accounting firm, KPMG, to do a forensic review.

In February, Scouts Canada's chief commissioner, Steve Kent, acknowledged that his organization did not report all allegations of sexual abuse to police in past decades, contrary to previous denials.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, an Oregon court approved the release of so-called perversion files compiled by the Boy Scouts of America on suspected child molesters within the organization over two decades, giving the public its first chance to review the files on 1,200 people.

The files gathered from 1965 to 1985 came to light when they were used as evidence in a landmark Oregon ruling in 2010 that the Scouts had failed to protect a plaintiff who had been molested by an assistant scoutmaster in the early 1980s. The Scouts were ordered to pay the man $18.5 million US.

If you have information on the KPMG report or any other part of this story, please contactinvestigations@cbc.ca.